The Roseland Urban Forestry Walk educates residents about healthy tree planting and dangerous invasive species
The two-hour walk was packed with information about the best trees to plant, the importance of biodiversity and the future of trees in Burlington
The City of Burlington hosted a walking tour of Roseland yesterday morning (August 8) as part of the City’s ongoing Heritage Week activities, giving residents the opportunity to learn more about the tree species planted in Burlington and efforts to reach the 35 percent tree canopy cover goal.
The tour, led by master arborist Kyle McLoughlin, saw about 20 local residents follow McLoughlin on a walk through the Roseland area.
McLoughlin talked about how the city is pushing to plant more trees and improve biodiversity, which is a problem in neighborhoods like Roseland, where many trees of the same species were planted at the same time.
“One of the reasons we have the problem here of all the treetops dying at the same time is because all the trees are in the same age class,” he said. “They all grow old at the same time, that’s not a really healthy environment or a healthy population. Think of us as people, multiple generations, right? You don’t want to have only the same generation living on a street, you don’t want to have only the same generation living in a country, because then you would have a big problem. And in the case of these streets, we want young trees, medium-sized trees, old trees and biodiversity.”
Burlington aims to achieve 35 percent tree canopy cover by 2061. It currently stands at about 31 percent, with much of that cover in rural areas. The city has 285 acres of forest land used for small-scale production of forest products, as well as about 85,000 individual trees that are not on forest land. The city planted more small trees this year than ever before.
The tour also covered the dangers of invasive species such as Norway maple or Asian ash beetle and how they can damage the ecosystems around them. Norway maples were once planted by the city, but this was stopped when it was discovered that they were outcompeting native species in a fight for nutrients and that their leaves were slightly toxic to wildlife. The Asian ash beetle is an invasive species from East Asia that burrows into ash trees, weakening them and making them more prone to falling over.
Heritage Week lasts the entire week and includes a total of 27 events.
